


The light, forgotten.

by Croeses



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Headcanon, The Void
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29655636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Croeses/pseuds/Croeses
Summary: She was the light.She was eternal.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	The light, forgotten.

She was the light.

She was eternal. She had seen civilizations rise and prosper. She had seen those same civilizations fall and vanish. If the Wyrm thought he could imprison and outlast her, he shall suffer the consequences of his folly.

What a pathetic being he was, giving up his true form to mingle with the mindless creatures that wandered these caverns, creatures as inferior to him as he was to her. He brought them order and prosperity. In exchange, they worshiped him. He was their protector and benefactor, a walking god among them.

She guessed this is the reason her tribe had abandoned and, eventually, forgotten her. She had only appeared to them in dreams and illusions, so easily dismissed as phantasms. She had never become one of them.

However much she disdained the Wyrm’s transmogrification, she understood and shared his desire for worship. She too had given intelligence and purpose to those lesser beings and had received gratitude and adoration in return. Seeing them create meaning out of their chaotic existence and using the gifts she gave them to leave a mark upon the world had gladdened her. Through them, her influence had grown and her domain had extended beyond the illusionary plane of dreams.

Even now, after their betrayal, she did not resent them. Such simple creatures could not be held accountable for their mistakes. The blame laid with the being that led them astray. The Wyrm and his kingdom shall receive the punishment for the insult he had brought her.

The Wyrm had proved a resourceful adversary. He belonged to the material realm, while she transcended it. As such, he had no means of facing her. Instead, he had called upon her eternal enemy to help. But the Void was not to be controlled. Not truly. The Wyrm had made such cruel sacrifices to gain its power, though. And, in the end, he had created the Vessel that would confine her.

Now, he felt safe. The part of the Void contained inside this shell cut all her connections to her realm of dreams and illusions. The minds of his subjects were finally free from her influence.

However, there was still a mind to be corrupted.

The Wyrm was a fool. She was the light. She was life itself. It was she who made the dirt flesh. It was she who conferred upon inert dust the primordial spark. No living creature was outside of her control.

This Vessel may have been reanimated by the Void, but her light still shone within. All she needed to do was wait for the lingering mind of this shell to reach out to her.

Inside the darkness, she was patient.

How long did she wait until she sensed its will? It did not matter, for time was meaningless to her.

Like a ray of light, its wish broke through the darkness: _Protect Hallownest._

How wonderful it was to feel again a mind! This wonderful creation of hers, so simple and rudimentary in some creatures, so beautiful and complex in others!

It felt too. It felt love for its father and its kingdom.

She showed the Vessel its beloved Hallownest in all its glory. And, then, the slow decay of the kingdom. Not the one she was going to bring about. Instead, she showed it the one she herself saw happening to countless other civilizations before: the incurable disease festering inside that would eventually turn the kingdom against itself.

She searched through its memories of the Wyrm and it showed the Vessel the worst of them. She underlined its father’s faults and cruelties. She showed it what family and love truly meant.

As its despair grew, she showed it her vision.

At first, it came to her as a trick for the Vessel, a way to capitalize on its love for Hallownest. But, gradually, it started to appear to her as a viable solution, something she herself would want to see fulfilled.

She showed it a world united, a world fully under her control. There would be no more tragedy for she would never allow it. Everyone would achieve happiness for she would create it for them. What the Wyrm attempted with his feeble powers, she shall achieve with her mastery over mind and soul. Her kingdom of light shall last eternal.

The creatures would lose their free will. It was an obstacle in fulfilling her vision. She wondered why they even had free will. She must have given it to them in time immemorial, long enough that she could not remember the reason anymore. As their creator, it was her right to deprive the creatures of it for their own wellbeing.

The Vessel listened and believed her. Slowly, it started sharing her dream. The darkness retreated and light shone within the shell. The Void fragment was still a thorn in her side, but now it was tamed and confined her no more.

Dawn shall break.

Free from her restrains, she returned to the realm of dreams. The Dreamers were there. They did not even have time to be surprised at her sight before she imprisoned them within a repeating illusion, forced now forever to relive their last moments. It wasn’t perfect. Even in this state, their existence alone blocked the gate to the Vessel’s prison.

That was a problem for another time. Now, she was free to exact vengeance upon the Wyrm.

The weak minds of the bugs of Hallownest fell to her once more. Only this time, imprisoned as she was inside this Vessel, controlling them proved impossible. That troublesome free will was too strong for her to overpower with her weakened powers. Her light made the creatures of Hallownest go mad with dreams. Her influence became less of an intervention of the divine and more of a plague.

Unable to find a new solution, with full knowledge of his failure, the Wyrm vanished.

She needed to escape this prison and regain her full powers if she was to take control of the infection and bring order to the fallen kingdom. Only an outside force would be able to free her.

She called out into the world and many answered. Bewitched by dreams of love, redemption, glory or power, they descended to Hallownest and, unknowingly, fought to free her, each by their own means.

They all failed.

She was patient.

She noticed it almost immediately. She did not make a habit of watching the newcomers, as most of them met their end soon after reaching the dead kingdom. But this one she couldn’t ignore, for it was a stain upon the world. Inside its shell, there was nothing but the Void, monstrously cut off from its source. A failed vessel had answered her call.

There was a certain irony in having one of the Wyrm’s mistakes help her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized there could be no more perfect pawn. However much she despised the Void it carried within it, its emptiness would allow it to enter the temple in which her Vessel had been chained and remove its bindings.

Until then, through the eyes of the infected, she watched its journey through the caverns. It showed resolve and an unnatural persistence unmatched by any of the others. Her call must have resonated so much more strongly inside it because of its emptiness. There were no distractions that it would make it lose its way. It was ruled by only one purpose.

The Dreamers proved to have more influence on the world than she had first imagined. Even imprisoned by her illusions, they managed to stop the failed vessel from pursuing them by bringing it into the world of dreams. They had forgotten that she still had servants who may not remember her anymore but who were still unknowingly loyal to her will.

The last member of her tribe gave the failed vessel the Dream Nail with which it cut its way out of the Dreamers’ trap. The tool that she had once given as a gift to her chosen ones was yet again used to her advantage. With it, the failed vessel would be able to hunt down the Dreamers and destroy them, removing one more obstacle in her path.

Sometime later, after the Dreamers met their end and she was waiting for the failed vessel to make its way to her, she felt something she had not felt in a long time. Somebody was reaching out to her. There was a time when it was a usual occurrence, the call of the creature searching for solace from their god. Softened by the memory, she turned to listen to the plea.

_Light... Radiance... I... remember you._

She was a forgiving goddess. She had forgiven her tribe their abandonment. She had not hunted them down, had not attacked their minds. Despite everything that had occurred, she had thought of them as her creatures, lost but still loved. She sensed the genuine repentance of the last one of them. For this alone, she conferred upon the old creature the honor of receiving her, reserved for only the greatest of the tribe. Her body shall not rot in the ground, returning to dirt; but rather she shall turn into Essence and become one with her creator. All was forgiven.

She had no wish for revenge anymore. Once she was free, she shall create the perfect world. The suffering brought by the infection was just a necessary step toward the higher goal she shall achieve.

Soon after, the failed vessel entered the Black Egg Temple and met its restrained sibling. Without hesitation, it cut the bindings, setting her Vessel free. With its role fulfilled, she had no more need of this creature. It was time for it to die and her Vessel knew it as well. Afterwards, it would leave its prison and she shall break free, destroying the shell that contained her and regaining her full powers together with her true place in the world.

Her Vessel did not live up to the task. The other one, the smaller one, proved to be stronger than she had expected. The failed vessel winning the fight would mean a new prison for her. She would break it as well eventually, of course, but ages would again have to pass before she could make a new attempt at escape.

Instead, something even more shocking happened. The failed vessel used the Dream Nail to enter her domain and face her directly.

To a creature so used to darkness, her light was unbearable. She tried to access its mind and incapacitate it with her illusions. There she met the all-encompassing Void. It resisted her light. A short struggle for the vessel’s mind ensued between the two forces, at the end of which she was forced to retreat. It all translated into excruciating pain for the vessel, who, driven mad by it, attacked her.

The blasphemy! She shall crush this insolent abomination! Again and again, her rays missed it. Again and again, it evaded her attacks. She became more and more enraged. Her fury was so great that she missed the darkness rising toward her, noticing it only after it sent its tendrils to subdue her.

Her wrath vanished and terror took its place. She broke free and flew up, trying to escape the anathema reaching out for her. The vessel followed her, bringing the Void along with it. She tried desperately to stop it. It was to no avail. The Void grew stronger with every moment.

How? How was it possible? The Void had no will. It existed with no purpose. Its great power was impossible to control. Why did it stand united now against her, driven by the wish to consume her?

In the end, the Void captured her. The shell of the failed vessel broke and its shade joined the mass of darkness, as did the shade of her Vessel. She struggled to escape but the Void surrounded her from all sides.

Was this her end? Could she truly die?

He had died, had he not? He-? The Void?

In a moment of clarity, she remembered. She remembered him. The lord of darkness. Her other half. Her ancient enemy and counterpart. Was she the one who had destroyed him? She could not recall. He was so long gone now and she had forgotten him. Was this the punishment for her crime? Or maybe for trying to take away the free will of the creatures, his gift to them? Or was it just simple malice?

Suddenly, she felt very tired. She was very old, she realized. She knew the light shall exist without her just as the darkness existed without him. Maybe it was time for her to rest.

She resisted the Void no more.


End file.
